"Cedric??"
"Cedgie, wake up... unh..."
Cedric Onyx opened his eyes to a glaring world of pain. Two faces floated in the sky above him. "Nngh... Dunderheads..."
"Aye! Yes, it's us!" Alliston propped his head up. "Take it easy, don't talk."
"We thought Natalie'd killed you," Coul admitted gravely. "I couldn't believe it..."
Cedric took in a labored breath. "No. Not her fault..." His two companions shot him a look of confusion. "Someone... controlling us..."
This surprised the raccoon. "Wait, what?? Who?"
"Empress Osoth." He trembled as he tried to rise. "Emnas... I understand now. So much hatred. Echelon... Natalie doesn't know..."
"Know... know what, Cedgie?" the vixen asked, perplexed.
He frowned. "Our fates were sealed the moment we met... always thought I was in control."
"Cedge... stop talking like that." Coul found himself shaken. Half the time, he almost hated him. But the boy he looked at now was... broken. Unsure. It shook his entire foundation. "The camp's running, our covers are blown! What do we do now??"
"Do... do we fight Natalie...?" Allie asked with extreme trepidation.
"No." He glared hard at them, pulling them down to him with all his strength. The badger breathed hard, with a sense of urgency he'd never had. "Osoth. Beat Osoth! You have to, or we're all fucked."
"Cedgie..." Her voice quavered. "Don't you mean 'we' have to?"
He shook his head bitterly. "Emnas has a weakness. I have to get away from Natalie. You can't follow me, that'll bring disaster. Maybe I could... get a little closer..."
"But... but we can't do it without you!" Coul found himself surprised to admit.
Alliston blinked away tears. "We're dunderheads..."
The badger's expression softened. "Fools... I only call you that to make you do better."
Coul found himself at a loss. "Are... are you telling us to help Natalie?"
"... I can't make your decisions for you." Cedric closed his eyes and sighed, his consciousness fading. "Just... stay safe... you numbskulls." Without another word, he passed out again.
Coul and Alliston traded a look of trepidation and dread. This sudden responsibility weighed heavily on them. What would it be? Would they run like scared children to the next available source of authority? Or would they endure, grow stronger, and make themselves independent in a brave new world?
Alliston shifted uncomfortably. "... Um... so..."
"... Leeet's go see if Natalie needs help."
"Yeah. Okay. Right."
-
- -
-
A lot of things were beginning to make sense to Carrie. The swirling hole in the sky that Gatemaker Parthal had summoned represented the answer to many questions- most notably, how the Inked had made it to Earth without warning the space station. Coming by atmosphere, they'd have been spotted. But if they arrived via some kind of teleportational means, then summoning all those monsters from off world became infinitely easier. This inkling was the key to the invasion, the transport for their troops. She bristled upon hearing the familiar roar of something large... and mighty. "Jacent! Stop her!"
He'd obviously been drawing the same conclusions, digging through his backpack before pulling out a bag of marbles. "Sorry, your flight's been canceled!" Drawing back an arm, he flung the handful of translucent toys with the force of a high-powered rifle. The diminutive glass balls tore into Parthal like buckshot, splattering her all over the grass. The gate began to shudder, as if overburdened by its own internal forces.
"Fools!" Parthal shook as she reformed. "Now I can't control it!" All of them looked up at the portal with fear. It had previously been a window to what appeared to be a blank white space, but it shifted now. A lava-ridden rock-scape faded into a massive, alien-looking forest, then a noxious, sickening gas-filled surface. Finally, it faded to the blackness of outer space... a vacuum which nature abhorred. The grass danced as leaves, frost and light objects belonging to refugees got pulled into the violently sucking vortex's pressure differential.
Natalie felt an urge to look at her PET. Echelon looked back. "Natalie! You must unlink Parthal and her host! That's the only way to stop this!"
"Oh, sure, no problem," Natalie muttered sarcastically, wiping blood from her nose. "Cap! We have to remove the inkling!"
Jacent shoved his fingers into the draw-ready loops carefully worked into his yo-yo holsters. His red and blue custom yo-yos sat tightly wound in his hands. Originally used to go easy on criminals, he'd found that he was actually faster with them than his fists after years of practice. The two yo-yos he'd had when he awakened were made of solid steel and strung with very small nylon test- a gift from a military engineer with more time and material than sense. They were strung with regular string now, but they'd been devastating to robots, beasts, anyone with the sense to wear armor... And, he hoped, terribly dangerous elder inklings. He pointed at her dramatically as his hair blew upward. "Your time draws near, Parthal!"
"I'm going to show you your insides, vainglorious fool!" They clashed once more, a mess of limbs and impacts so rapid they seemed rehearsed. Instead of closing in, this time Jacent played a distance game. Boosted flicks of the wrist sent threatening tentacle ends splattering impotently, falling at Parthal's feet like so much rain. After driving back a half-dozen tendrils, he dropped both toys downward and brought them around-the-world several dozen times in scant seconds, before slamming them down where Parthal would have been... if not for a fortuitous backstep. "You think you're a real hero, don't you??"
Jacent spun the blue yo-yo in front of him like a propeller as she resumed her tentacle attack, entangling them as it wrapped around the oozing limbs rapidly. "No!" He answered, yanking her toward him with unreasonable force, a boost-punch meeting her face and tossing her back away from him. "I'm an outdated relic from a world of unnecessary violence and strife- same as you!"
"Ooh, a moody brooder!" She managed to wrap a limb around his torso, lifting him off the ground. "Let me guess, you're a lone wolf, too! Like to go off on your own??" She assaulted him with bludgeoning blows, which he managed to knock away with quick jabs. A sneaky lower blade-hand reared itself just as he parried a hit from another. His foot came up, and the blade sunk into his boot before thumping flat against the steel sole. "I bet you're the reason Natalie spews that childish hope and justice garbage in class!"
As she struggled to remove the blade, he yanked her tendril with all his power, ripping it from her body and rendering it formless jelly. He held his side- lucky hits happened, he reassured himself. Still, even a glancing blow was devastating. "As opposed to your infantile hate and suffering sermon??" He hopped back and dug his ping pong paddle out, as well as a tube of balls. Plastic spheres popped out of the tube three at a time to be rapid-fired at the blue inkling, allowing him a moment's respite. "These people have learned how to survive without violence, like I always dreamed- then you show up to ruin it all!"
Parthal cackled as the vortex grew bigger. "Go back into your storybook, child- the dream is dead!"
"Natalie!"
"Hunh?!" The wolf girl had been too preoccupied watching the fight and trying to convince herself she wouldn't tear something if she tried to help. What she hadn't noticed was Coul and Alliston trying to get her attention. "Gah! What do you two want??"
Allie grinned nervously. "Um, truce matey, truce!"
Nat narrowed her eyes and growled. "You keep saying that, and I keep almost getting killed."
"Easy!" Coul held up his hands. "Cedge told us we have to take out Osoth or we'll never be free again; I don't know what that means, but, like... um..."
"We're... toadies." Allie frowned, sniffling a bit. "We don't know how to be the boss. Come on, tell us what to do! You can call us numbskulls and everything!"
Natalie winced, sighing. This was just what she needed. "... Wait." This was exactly what she needed! "Alright, you two, listen up!"
Jacent was out of toys. His empty backpack slung off, all he had left were his wits and his yo-yos. The featureless yellow-eyed monster he faced was becoming unhinged, ranting and raving while she pressed the attack harder and harder. He began looping underhand forward passes in alternation just to keep her away from him. He'd tried to separate inkling and human, but while she had free reign, that seemed impossible. And judging from the dazed look on Carrie's face, he wasn't going to get an assist for a repeat performance of their trick against Laibon.
"Face it, my little anachronism- you. Are. TRAPPED!" She grinned sadistically, closing in with multiple flailing limbs ending in nasty hooked blades. "No toys in class!" Her scything blades cut the strings of his punishing pastime, the steel wheels rolling off impotently. She reached for him with a deadly touch, but he cartwheeled to the side. She lashed out again, same result. A giant spiked blue club came to smash him where he stood, he backflipped out of the way as it dug into the earth by measures of feet, not inches.
Jacent had been in longer, more drawn out fights. What he hadn't done, was fight against an opponent that got less, not more tired the longer they went at it. Things were getting dangerous, fast, and everyone else was in no condition to do this. "Oh, this is bad..."
"Jacent!" He spotted two big gouts of... magma? Natalie had produced them, and was now gesturing to a series of big, black stonehenge-like pillars of what looked to be rock. She made a gesture, her fist through her hand.
"... Ah!" Jace grinned. "You know, I've been going easy on you so far, but if you want me to use full strength, I suppose I've got no choice."
Parthal shook with sheer cackling madness. "You-... you really-... ah-... ah-... ahahahaha!!" She struck like a snake where he stood. "GOTCHA!!"
When she looked up, Jacent had back-stepped out of the way again. "It's over! Comet CRASH!!" The red-haired teen plowed into the whole of the inked skunk and accelerated hard, running, bouncing, then just straight-out flying across the park.
His unwilling passenger smashed into the stone with him, shards of it flying off. Another hit, then another, the crashes happening too fast to count. Her flesh began to spasm and bulge. "No!" She split at the seams. "NOOOOOO!!"
Finally, Gatemaker Parthal and Culby Hendrix were forcibly separated. Jacent took the woman into his arms and rolled gently to a stop, safe within his force shield until they finally ceased movement. Spatters of navy liquid lie puddled across the park. The clouds closed around the gate, which shut completely. A gentle rain began to fall.
The battle was over.
-
- -
-
"Where is he??" Lorna Grayswift demanded from the back room of the Burger Dictator. "I need that regulator if I'm ever going to get this damn thing to stop overheating!"
Max blinked in surprise. "Doctor Natalie's Mom, it's only been five minutes; that part could be anywhere."
"I know how much time has elapsed, Max. I kind of went to college to understand machines inside and out," she groused irritably. "I think I can read a simple clock."
"... Um, whoa. Sorry, Doctor Natalie's-"
"Grayswift! Doctor. Grayswift! I came first, after all!" The woman winced, holding her head. "Arngh!"
"Doctor N- Uh, Grayswift... are you okay??" He rushed to her side.
"Anh... Ungh... I'm... I'm sorry, Max, I don't know what happened there."
He waved it off with a grin. "No sweat! Carrie yells at me like every other day."
Dr. Grayswift removed her glasses and pinched the bridge of her muzzle. "It was... I felt some kind of incredible irritation at something, but... I don't know what."
Max considered it a moment. "Probably the fact that you're cheek-deep in grease."
She blinked. "What??"
He pointed. "You're sitting on your oil rag. It's all over your butt now."
She got up and peeled the orange rag from her girthy bottom. "Oh, fudgesticks. And this is my only pair of pants here."
Max quirked his head. "You could borrow some! From Margar-... mm... from Sam's mo-... eh... I could ask Sully!"
She narrowed her eyes. "Why don't you go try to find Kei?"
"Yes, Doctor Natalie's Mom!"
-
- -
-
She opened her eyes, slowly. A drab grey sky yawned with cloudy indifference. She felt the rain on her cheeks, plinking onto her glasses. A drop or two sunk through her sunny yellow sweater. She shivered and rose as the last few days flooded back into her memory. Was it all a dream? She turned her head and spotted her students. Natalie Grayswift, Carrie Oakenfield... the two troublemakers Coul Sael and Alliston Madriccie, as well; all of them covered in cuts, scrapes and bruises. This time, though, she knew it wasn't from fighting each other in the halls... it was from defending themselves from the monster inside her.
No, this wasn't a dream at all. It was a nightmare. Natalie looked over to her, smiling despite the blood running down her nose and one side of her face. "Ms. Hendrix, you're awake!"
"Ah... Y-yes." She winced with a deep feeling of guilt.
"Good! I was worried I'd hit you too hard!" Boisterous laughter came from a teenager who was not her student at all- nor did he belong in her century.
"You! I... so... it really did all happen." She covered her eyes. "I'm so sorry..."
"Easy, Teach. It's alright." Carrie sniffed casually- or perhaps drowsily, considering the pain she felt. "We made sure that thing was completely out of you. You don't have to worry about it anymore."
"You don't understand..." Hendrix sobbed. "She... she used me. I was just a meat puppet to her, an afterthought. She made sure I could see all the things she was doing... How many people have I hurt? How many innocents are now... oh, children..."
"It wasn't your fault. So, um..." Natalie kicked a bit of misplaced earth. "I guess you know our secret, huh?"
She nodded. "I swear I won't tell a soul, I owe you at least that much."
"Thanks." the girl smiled. "... If we all get out of this, how about a little freebie boost on my History grade?"
Ms. Hendrix looked at her incredulously... and laughed. "I don't think so, young lady. Though..." she looked over to Jacent, who was busy re-stringing his yo-yos. "... I'll give you some big extra credit if you bring that one in for show and tell!"
"... Huh??" Jacent looked a bit confused as everyone laughed.
"Oh, you must have so many things to tell, sir!" She had a glint in her eye; history for her was a passion, not a profession. "When are you from??"
"The... 90s, mostly," he supplied. "Er, the 1990s, that is."
Ms. Hendrix gasped, delighted. "Ooh, just barely before the Skin Plague! Oh, if only we had some books from such a time!"
"We do, Ms. Hendrix." Natalie grinned. "Remember when you used to bust me for reading my comic books back in grade school History?"
"I sure do," she laughed. "You were quite the little sneak about it, too."
"Well, as it turns out," the wolf girl dialed in something on her PET, bringing up the cover of an issue of The Unbelievable Cap'n Comet. "This was a factual account of his life!"
The skunk blinked, adjusting her glasses at the hologram, then at Jacent, and back again. "My word! You're absolutely right, that's him!"
She smugly folded her arms. "And you said I wasn't paying attention to History."
She laughed softly. "I stand corrected. ... Natalie?" Her teacher gave her an earnest smile. "Thank you. Without you and your friends, I might've been Parthal's prisoner forever."
Natalie stood proudly despite weakness. "Happy to help! Just doing our jobs as superheroes!"
"No, really, I mean it. I know I and the other teachers have tried to dissuade and punish you for it, but... I'm really glad you decided to kick ass." She clenched a fist and smirked.
"It's like she said," Carrie replied, "It's fine. That's what we're here for." She looked to Natalie in symbolic solidarity and enjoyed the smile and nod she received. "We just wish we knew what was coming. We still don't know where to go next."
"Parthal had many terrible plans," Ms Hendrix noted. "I don't remember any of them in full, and for that I'm sorry. But I do recall her talking with some subordinates about trying to take over the rail system. I think she mentioned taking a subway tunnel to Anchorsway in order to overcome the dome lock."
"Where is Anchorsway?" Jacent asked.
"It's a city to the South of Locksmouth, under the ocean," supplied Natalie. "But what would she want in Anchorsway? All that's there is the amusement park and the space elevator." Her eyes slowly widened. "Ohmigod! The space elevator!"
"She wants to invade from the space station..." Carrie intuited.
"Undersea city? Space station??" Jacent asked incredulously.
"You mean you didn't notice it??" Carrie seemed almost offended by the notion, pointing to the horizon where the clouds broke. "Y'see those lights just under the clouds, like a pair of dotted lines?" She traced its trajectory through small broken spots in the clouds, all the way to the other horizon. "That's the Ring. It goes all the way around the world, and to get up to it, you have to take a space elevator. There aren't that many, but the nearest one's in Anchorsway."
"Unbelievable..." He gaped at it in awe. "Even moreso, that they could operate all that technology. I know I couldn't."
"Ah, that's right!" The skunk piped up. "They still can't, I remember now! They needed to find someone with the technical know-how before they could pull it off. They were looking for somebody with impossible amounts of knowledge- transport, vehicle operation, space travel, robotics..."
Before they could continue, Coul and Alliston ran over the hill, desperate and gasping. "NatalieNatalieNatalie!" Allie burst. "Cedric's gone! The blue thing took him, he was trying to fight it but it's in his body now! He went into the drain system!"
Natalie felt a chill wind blow down her spine. "Carrie? Let's go, I need to make sure my Mom's okay."
The cat nodded, anxious along with her.
"Don't worry about me, kids, I know of a friend's house not far from here- I'll hole up there until I can find transport elsewhere."
"You two, follow Ms. Hendrix and make sure she's safe," Nat instructed her two new... goons, she supposed.
"Aye-aye!"
"No sweat."
Natalie slapped her hips and rose at a hover, holding Carrie's hand as she did the same. "Jacent, do you think you can follow us??"
The red-haired boy looked around and spotted a welcome, familiar sight. He easily hefted a child's sky blue bicycle with rainbow streamers, set it down in a circular motion, jumped on and peeled out in a dirt-flinging 180 as if it were a race-performance motorcycle. "Lead the way!"
-
- -
-
Speed had a funny effect depending on how you reached it. In a mag-lev subway train, it was easy to forget about reaching triple digits in miles per hour. In a comfortable personal trans with plush seats and a nice sound system, it might barely register. But doing ninety on levitating shoes, protected only by a force shield projected by one's mind? Sobering didn't begin to cover it. As the smooth but hilly pavement and unavoidable long patches of grass passed underfoot at blistering speeds, Nat nervously checked her arm-mounted PET for the dozenth time. 87% charge even.
"Remind me why we're going the long way around??" Carrie asked loudly to be heard over the rushing wind. She was right behind Natalie, riding in her slipstream with the help of a couple handfuls of yo-yo string from Jacent's utility belt. She struggled to keep her tail from dragging with all the forces pushing on it.
"What, you wanna go through the structs?? That's suicide, we'd hit a building or hurt those people trying to escape!" she answered back.
"Shouldn't we be helping those people?"
Natalie swallowed hard, trying to suppress her feelings of guilt. "Yeah. Yeah, we should." But her mother was more important, was the part she left off.
"No, you're right," Carrie conceded as the green grass gave way to golden sand; they were entering the area of the beach that was contained in-dome. "We'd be useless to them like this." She smirked, her big blue curls blowing in the wind. "I need me some bat kisses first; apparently they're pretty great."
Nat managed to cheer up just a little, glad for her lover's playfully jealous banter. Still, she could dodge these pressing issues no longer. The survivors of the initial attack were all fleeing into the same areas she'd remembered fighting zomb-inks, which summoned to mind terrible images of the herd being culled; small, slow and weak being picked off as the masses fled. Like children. Like Gren.
She poured on the speed. This new army was too weak, too cobbled-together and sparse to take on the threat that the Inked invasion had proven. They were equipped for combat against other, similar armies, not a race that assimilated their hosts. The emergency crews were all volunteering in the human army, or unwillingly in Osoth's. The other neighboring cities had most likely engaged the dome lock, so help wasn't coming from them. It would've infuriated anyone else, but she knew better- it was essential that they not spread to the rest of the world. If they were confined to Locksmouth, they had to make sure they stayed there. "... Echelon."
The pink-eyed black goo she'd so recently discovered appeared on the translucent inner surface of the force shield. "Mmnh... I'm here."
Natalie winced. Oh, yeah, she did kind of get the worst end of the bargain out there. "You okay, Esh?"
She blinked. "... Oh, um, I'm sorry. I've never been asked that before."
"Well, I care, so get used to it. We're in this together."
"Right." Echelon affirmed. "I'm... okay. Still trying to remember some things. Like how to stop bleeding."
"Bleeding??" Nat didn't like the sound of that. "Unh!" She felt a knee pop up from a sudden dune.
"Yes. As inklings... we can't exist in your world. Something about the fabric of it just tears us apart. We live in a place that's much less... weighty."
"Like another dimension??" Natalie asked with wonder.
"Like another plane of existence. It's very different. Your only access to it is a teensy little glance sometimes when you're asleep."
"So that's why you bug us in our dreams," Carrie noted.
"Right. You dream parallel to where we live. But whenever we jump into your plane of existence, we immediately start losing our essence. There are ways to minimize that- a big help is having a... er. Compliant host." She didn't seem to like to refer to it that way, but this was the reality.
"Whatever you need me to do, Echelon, just ask!" Natalie urged her. "And talk to me more often, if you can- even advice would be helpful more than I'm hearing it."
The black liquid creature made a complicated expression of regret... but a smile was in it somewhere. "Sure. I think I've discovered how to communicate without taking much energy. Oh, and I seem to be 'recharging' much quicker now that we're on better terms."
The wolf girl seemed a tad surprised. "Really??"
"It's actually kind of amazing!" Echelon marveled. "I'm getting several times the needed nutrients, with no additional input from you. It's almost as if the emotional synchronization aids in our symbiosis! As if this... is actually the way it's supposed to be..."
"... Natalie!"
"Uh?!" She snapped out of it and turned her head to see Jacent, standing on the pedals of his borrowed bike as it bounced violently along the sandy beach.
"Is that where we're headed??" He gestured to a group of smaller buildings up the beach and into the paved, grassy area of Locksmouth- the commercial district. The Dairy Bar, Taco Dojo, Aunt Tiquity's...
"The Burger Dictator!" Carrie cried out. "I never thought I'd be so happy to see that greasy gulag!"
-
- -
-
When Natalie burst through the door of Biggy D's, it was quite a shock to all parties. Several refugees she didn't recognize were making a living space of the place while tending to various injuries bodily and not. Her friends were there, too- most notably Max, who hung down from a ceiling tile covered in dust and soot. "Hey! Aren't you guys at the camp??"
Carrie edged her way in. "Yeah, there's a lot to explain. We had to bail on that place pretty hard. Thanks to the grav-skiffs, we made it here in no time. Props to you, Mr. Lee." She smirked at the panda, who looked up from playing a board game with his family to flash them both a smile.
"I don't care how you got back, I'm just glad you're here!" Lorna ran over to pick her daughter up in a big hug. "Ohhh, Natalie, I'm so glad you're safe! Are you okay? Oh, is that blood?? What happened?"
"Angh, e-easy on the ribs, Mom!" Nat grinned and hugged her back. "Like Carrie said, we'll explain in a bit... but right now, I just want some medical help and a place to sit down." She sighed in relief and hushed a bit. "I'm just glad you're safe...."
"Oh, hey, Carrie, Natalie!" Erwin got up from his booth to greet them. "I'm glad you guys made it back!" He blinked a moment. "Geez, you alright, Nat? Oh, and where's Jacent?"
"I'll be fiiine," Nat laughed hoarsely. "I just need a little love from our medic."
"Oh, you'll be better in a jiff, dear," Sam assured her, standing behind the divider for the cashier's line. "Just bend down a bit, won't you?" As her wolf friend stiffly complied, she gave her a kiss that was warm, friendly and a little playful. The warmth passed between them and filled Natalie with a tingling happiness. Wounds closed, scrapes glossed over, and fur cropped back up, clean and shining. "There! Now doesn't that feel better?"
"Much." She smiled and thanked Sam, sighing in relief. "I hope you've been careful to keep your powers a secret from the newcomers."
"We did have to transform out there, but I don't think anyone saw in the chaos." Erwin explained. "It was kind of risky. Sorry, Natalie, it was my fault. We were in really big trouble, I... it was our only way to fight back."
She took a deep breath and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Erwin. You had to make a tough call. I'm proud of you." She smiled at his blush. "In fact, I'm really impressed you three defended the BD!"
"Of course they did, Natalie Grayswift! These friends of yours have the hearts of heroes as well." Jacent leaned against the door frame, thumbing toward a tree outside that he'd tied the bike to with rope... several feet in the air. "Sorry about that, I had to park my ride."
"Jacent! You're safe!" Samantha cried out delightedly.
Her father strode over as well. "Is this the pre-splice human I've heard so much about?"
"Oh, yes, Papa! Isn't he something else??"
Dr. Masterson nodded appreciatively, greeting the boy with an old-fashioned handshake and a thoughtful puff of his pipe. "Indeed... good to make your acquaintance, Mr. Caution."
"Oh, Papa." The bat girl rolled her eyes.
Carrie looked lustfully after his pipe. "Hey, could I bum a hit off that? I'm wheezing like a coal miner."
He stared thoughtfully at his pipe for a moment. "Quite unsanitary. Still..." He wiped off the mouthpiece, raised an eyebrow and offered it to her.
"Relax, kids, you're safe here," Lorna smiled. "Have a seat, I'll get you some food, and maybe you can explain to us what happened!"
They did exactly that. Nat, Cat and Jace had lunch while the others listened to them about what transpired at the park- the deception, running into Ginsmen, Cedric's supposed betrayal, and the defeat of Gatemaker Parthal. They hushed a bit when sensitive information came up, and narrated third-person when necessary.
"Oh, how terrible!" Sam fretted. "I'm just glad Ms. Hendrix is no longer under that dreadful spell."
Max bobbed his head in agreement. "Yeah, 'cause holy crap was she a monster with that thing!"
"Parthal was the monster- she was just an innocent bystander," Erwin contested.
Jacent listened to the conversation, happily enjoying his second triple dictator with everything on it. As he chewed, however,something occurred to him... something terrible. He looked at the menagerie of people around him and came to a terrifying conclusion. "Nuh-... Natalie?" He stared at his lunch in horror. "What's in these?"
Max piped up, "Pickles and lettuce, and on-i-on! Ketchup and mustard, tomatoes and bun! And don't forget before you eat, our very special brand of seasoned meat!" He flourished at the end, "Bow to your knees~!"
Carrie sighed, blowing mist from the pipe. "I will never forgive you for making him do that."
The furless boy shook his head. "But there's meat, and meat comes from animals, and you're all part animal- am I eating people?!"
The entire table, save Jacent, burst out in peals of laughter. Even Natalie, who felt bad for him, couldn't help but giggle. "Sure! Why don't you think we have any fat friends?? Gobbled 'em up already! And boy were they good."
"Yeah!" Cat chimed in. "We've been meaning to eat Erwin since the sixth grade, but he just won't gain a pound. Lousy skinny prey species."
Erwin smirked. "Pre-splice humans were apex predators, right? If not, I'd probably stay away from our alphas in the morning."
Max grinned. "I feed them my tail every month or so just to keep them off my back!"
Sam couldn't resist joining in. "That reminds me, Jacent, dear- did you want some of my delicious Diet AB Positive?" She tilted her cup, offering it to him.
It took him a moment to gather his wits. "Oh, you're teasing me." He chuckled a little himself.
Natalie nodded and smiled helpfully. "We might look like animals to you, but we also still have actual animals. We just keep them outside the domes, or in the nature preserve."
"Yeah!" Erwin gestured to his burger, "There's no animal content in this. It's all plant matter."
"Oh!" Jace nodded. "Like soy!"
Cat shook her head. "Nah! They're plants genetically modified to grow muscle. We go out and harvest them sometimes in P.E. class."
"... Meat-plants." Jacent winced, looking down at his burger. "If I wasn't so hungry..." He dug in again, to resounding laughter.
-
- -
-
Hugh and Margaret Oakenfield were happy. The past couple of days had been just about all they could take, but their daughter was safe, and when it came right down to it, that was all that mattered to either of them. The new revelation of her indestructible nature had done nothing to assuage their worries for her safety- but they were parents. That was their job.
For now, however, things seemed to be stable in the microcosm of the restaurant and the people within it. The kids were with them, food was available... and they had a surprise.
"Pumpkin," Hugh called his daughter, seeing that she'd finished eating with the others. "Could you come over here? Ah, bring Natalie, too."
Carrie shrugged and walked over to the booth her parents were sitting at with her girlfriend in tow, all smiles. "What's up, Daddy?"
"Well, dear," Margaret began excitedly. "I enlisted the help of the nice fox boy while he was out looking for parts for Dr. Grayswift. I told him not to worry if it was too risky, but he managed to get the fabric I needed, and you seemed so sad that it got torn up, I..." She stopped over-explaining herself and laughed softly. "Well, anyway, here you go, honey."
Carrie's eyes lit up as she observed her mother holding an exact copy of her very favorite outfit- the mini-skirted schoolgirl getup she'd worn the day of the Inked invasion. Her eyes welled up with tears of simple joy as she hugged her parents simultaneously. "Aaaaa, thank you Mom! I can't believe you remembered all the seams and everything!"
Natalie laughed. "Wow, I had no idea you liked that one so much." All of them were surprised- perhaps the situation had made Cat that much more thankful for the little things. "You should go put it on right now!" she encouraged her.
"Oh, no way," Cat replied conscientiously, glancing at all the cuts in her jeans and undershirt. "I couldn't live with myself if that one got trashed, too."
"Actually..." an eavesdropping Dr. Masterson noted, quietly holding a pack of med-sticks in barter for his pipe back. "She used an organically synthesized kind of silk to make the outfit, making it very technically living, in the strictest sense."
"What's that mean??" Carrie asked, wiping the pipe mouthpiece on her boob before happily making the exchange.
Dr. Masterson cocked a brow at the pipe before nodding evenly. "It means that in case of damage, be it cosmetic or serious, my Samantha should theoretically be able to repair your clothing as well as your scrapes and bruises."
"Wow," Natalie marveled. "Really??"
He nodded. "Mm. It was Dr. Grayswift's idea. I admit it's a lot more slapdash approach to science than I'm used to, but her intuition for these kinds of things is really something to behold."
"... That's awesome!" Cat exclaimed. "In that case, I'll put this on now! I could use the leg mobility anyway."
Natalie watched her girlfriend skip off with her new old outfit in tow, and line of sight let her see trouble walk in, right through the door.
"Avast, Cap'n Nat! You made it!" Alliston greeted the wolf girl, Coul by her side.
"What??" Natalie stared incredulously. "What are... how'd you get here??"
"After we got Ms. Hendrix to safety, we decided to come back and see if you needed us," explained Coul, hat in hand. "We took the mass trans."
"Aye! 'Twas a chesty lass and a maritime soldier what ferried us over!"
Sam, Erwin and Max gathered around just as Cat emerged in her new clothes.
"Hey, who invited you punks??"
"You guys are maximum lameness!"
"Don't even think of being recklessly uncouth in here!"
"Guys," Natalie interrupted. "Stop, it's okay. They're on our side."
Carrie cocked a brow. "... You sure?"
Nat was about to say 'yes,' but she hesitated. To be frank, no! She wasn't sure, and she could use a little advice. She turned to Jacent, who in his fearsome hunger, was somehow still eating. "Cap? You've had plenty of team-ups with... questionable figures. What do you think?
He thought about it a moment, amused. "I find that a show of good faith is usually called for."
Natalie smirked, turning back to the now quite nervous duo. "Alright. You wanna hang with us? Be the good guys?"
Allie hesitated, trading a look of worry with Coul. "Um. Aye."
The wolf girl nodded. "Okay. I need your hat, Coul, and your bandana, Alliston." Holding her hands out, she smiled and took the articles, stuffing them both in her hoodie. "With good behavior, you can get them back."
The two of them stood somewhat awkwardly. "I feel so naked without my hat," the raccoon confided, rubbing his mess of hair self-consciously.
The vixen sighed in agreement, not enjoying the outcast role much without Cedric. "Aye."
"... You always looked better without the hat, Allie," Sam replied warmly. "Say, do you remember our old dodgevolley cheer?"
She smiled a little sheepishly. "Um. Beat 'em up, knock 'em down, show 'em all your might-"
"Locksmouth Landsharks, fight fight fight~!" Sam finished for her, giggling and leading her away to reminisce.
Coul stood with his hands in his pockets. Max strode up to him, unimpressed. "... Bet I can beat you up to the roof of this place."
"Pffft! In your dreams maybe!" He grinned at the challenge. "C'mon!"
Carrie stood beside Natalie and gave her a sly smile, playfully bumping hips with her. "Look at you. Bolstering forces, using resources, making tough calls. Now if only we had an actual plan on how to stop Empress Osoth."
"Actually..." Erwin spoke up. "With information Phactys has been giving me, I think I might have a theory..."
Natalie drew back with surprise. "Really?! Well, what is it??"
"Apparently Osoth is able to engage some kind of hive mind ability using frequencies that go undetected by the conscious mind. Every inkling acts as a kind of signal tower, extending the range of her control."
"The more she has, the more she gets," Carrie noted with concern.
"Exactly," the ferret confirmed. "But if we can make a device that would fill those frequencies with a stronger, more local signal that gave different instructions, we could cut her off at the knees."
"Ah!" Jacent nodded. "Like broadcasting on a local radio station!"
"An antiquated example, but the idea's the same."
"Great!" Let's get started right now!" Natalie exclaimed.
"Whoa, whoa." Erwin gestured in warning of a big caveat, frowning. "I don't know if my theory's correct, I'm just speculating. We'd have to actually broadcast something that would reinforce the opposite of whatever it is that Osoth exploits to get into people's heads... is it a subliminal message? A deep-seated instinct? An emotional state? We have no idea."
"Crap," sighed the wolf. "I knew there was a catch."
"Not to mention, even if I somehow had the research in my hands... the components for something like this thing would not be easy to find in the best of times. We'd have to go all over the place just to get what we needed." The ferret gazed toward the door, which suddenly brightened his mood. "Oh hey, maybe not!" He got up and ran toward the fox boy who entered. "Kei! I'm glad you're back. My friends are here! I want you to meet them."
Kei smiled at Erwin, hugging him tightly. The glimpse he saw over his shoulder, however, soured that smile immediately. "No..." he pushed away. "Why did you have to be here??" he snarled, pointing at Natalie.
"What?" She had a friendly greeting prepared, but now confusion was all she had to offer. "What do you mean?"
"Everything was going so well! Everything was perfect until YOU came!" The fox became extremely agitated, twitching and convulsing so violently that his glasses hit the floor, along with the machine component he'd been asked to fetch.
"Kei, what's wrong??" Erwin asked from his sitting position on the floor.
"I'm sorry, Erwin..." A deep forest green tendril sprouted from behind him, retrieved his glasses and put them back on his face. "Please, forgive me."
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